Social Media – A Personal Relationship with the World

Sandy Adam, Manager of Social Media Marketing for ANSYS, Inc. (an engineering simulation software company in Canonsburg, PA) provides her surprising insights on how to advance one’s social media presence once you’re no longer a beginner. As a bonus, Sandy also makes a recommendation on a good social media book to add to our reading list.

Sandy is a recent transplant to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she has quickly connected with locals and the digital marketing scene. You can connect with Sandy (who also has a fascinating background in virtual world development and the use of virtual worlds for training and serious games) by visiting linkedin.com/in/sandyadam and about.me/Sandy.Adam

Let’s get something straight; right from the get go. Social technology isn’t easy, free or the magic pill that will take a Brand from obscurity to success in short order. No. Social is hard. WAY hard. Social never sleeps. You might, but while you do, it’s a thriving and active community that does very well without you. But that said, social is AWESOME! It’s exciting and invigorating while being confusing and exasperating. Hmm, this sounds a lot like a personal relationship doesn’t it? THAT is what social is.. a personal relationship with the world.

There are plenty of thought-leaders in the social space that I respect and follow almost religiously. But sometimes I feel they are talking to the masses of newbies in this space. And I think, at this point, there are far more noobs than experts out there, and that’s okay. Everyone needs to start somewhere.

But where do you go, when you’ve been in the field for a while? Sure you have developed your own thoughts and methodologies for using social media channels for connecting and positioning your Brand, but sometimes you will find yourself in the position of saying “what’s next?”. I tried this, that and the other thing, here are my results, here’s what worked and here’s what didn’t. But now what?

My advice, go back to the basics. Remember that social media is only one of the tools in your toolbox and that you want to make sure ALL of your tools are honed. Think about how social media integrates with your other marketing campaigns. How you can use your website’s SEO keywords in conjunction with your social media efforts. And think about the types of metrics you want to achieve.

I recently picked up a book called “Social Media Metrics Secrets” by John Lovett. Not only does it have great information about quantifying your social media success efforts, it offers some great insight into moving beyond simply counting your social media metrics on to aligning them with your KPI (Key Performance Indicators. I recommend you pick up a copy as it will surely make you think about new ways to use your social tactics. Let me know what you think of it.

Pro Quote

But I like to think that a lot of managers and executives trying to solve problems miss the forest for the trees by forgetting to look at their people — not at how much more they can get from their people or how they can more effectively manage their people. I think they need to look a little more closely at what it’s like for their people to come to work there every day.— Gordon Bethune,, Continental Airlines